Tellurium-containing Polymers: Recent Developments and Trends

Yiheng Dai, Jun Guan, Shenghan Zhang, Shuojiong Pan, Banruo Xianyu, Zhuoxin Ge, Jinyan Si, Chaowei He, Huaping Xu Prog. Polym. Sci.; 2023, 141, 101678. Significant progresses have been made in tellurium-containing polymers over the past decades. Just like other heteroatom-containing polymers, tellurium-containing polymers exhibit several unique properties and promising applications. However, unlike elements such as boron, silicon, sulfur and so on, tellurium in polymers remains a fresh perspective for many researchers. In this review, we shall illustrate the diversification of tellurium-...
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A nanotherapeutic strategy to reverse NK cell exhaustion

Shuojiong Pan, Jun Guan, Banruo Xianyu, Yizheng Tan, Tianyu Li, and Huaping Xu Adv. Mater.; 2023, 23, 2211370. As a specialized immune effector cell, natural killer (NK) cells play a very important role in immunotherapy, but tumor immunosuppression caused by abnormal expression of cancer cells seriously weakens its therapeutic effect and leads to exhaustion. Here, we developed a self-assembled selenium containing nanoparticles (NPs) composed of Cetuximab, C5SeSeC5 and inhibitor LY345899 to reverse NK cell exhaustion. The obtained NPs can target EGFR on the surface of cancer cells and locat...
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Dynamic Fluorescent Patterning Based on Visible-Light-Responsive Diselenide Metathesis

Jinyan Si, Peng Zhao, Jun Guan, Shaobo Ji and Huaping xu Langmuir; 2022, 38, 13272 A diselenide bond, as a dynamic covalent bond, is a versatile tool to construct smart interfaces, which can respond to visible light. In this work, we used microcontact printing (μCP) to construct diselenide patterns on quartz substrates. Fluorescent patterns were obtained on the modified surfaces via the visible-light-induced diselenide metathesis reaction, which allowed the patterning process to be fast, dynamically erasable, and compatible with different fluorescent molecules including rhodamine B and b...
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Rapidly reprogrammable actuation of liquid crystal elastomers

Cheng Liu, Shaobo Ji and Huaping Xu Matter; 2022, 3, 2397. A rapid and reprogrammable alignment strategy for the reversible actuation of liquid crystal elastomers has been achieved through the phase-transition-induced shape memory effect. This breakthrough, recently reported in Advanced Materials by Xie and colleagues, illustrated the important role of shape-memory-induced stress regulation in developing and improving functional polymer materials.
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Thermal- and Light-driven Metathesis Reactions Between Different Diselenides

Xiaoying Kang, Yuan Yuan, Huaping Xu and Yulan Chen Chem. Res. Chinese Universities, 2022, 38, 516. Thermal- and light-driven diselenide metathesis reactions with different types of diselenides are investigated systematically. Their exchange reaction rates and equilibrium conversions are compared in the aspects of the different diselenide structures, activation conditions and solvents. As a result, the metathesis reactions between diselenide small molecules are demonstrated with high dynamic and sensitive features, which can be broadly tuned by varying the electron affinity and aromaticity o...
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Water-Enhanced and Remote Self-Healing Elastomers in Various Harsh Environments

Peng Zhao, Muqing Cao, Cheng Liu, Yiheng Dai, Yizheng Tan, Shaobo Ji, and Huaping Xu ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.; 2022, 14, 27413. The development of underwater remote stimulus-responsive self-healing polymer materials for applications in inaccessible and urgent situations is very challenging because water can readily disturb traditional noncovalent bonds and absorb heat, UV light, IR light, and electromagnetic wave energy at the wave band of micrometers and millimeters. Herein, visible-light-responsive diselenide bonds are employed as the healing moieties to produce a water-enhanced and re...
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Engineering Reversible Hydrogels for 3D Cell Culture and Release Using Diselenide Catalyzed Fast Disulfide Formation

Yueying Han, Cheng Liu Huaping Xu and Yi Cao Chin. J. Chem.; 2022, 40, 1578. Hydrogels crosslinked by dynamic covalent bonds can effectively mimic the viscoelastic properties of native extracellular matrix and have been widely explored for 3D cell culture. Disulfide is one of the most common dynamic bonds in biological systems whose for-mation and cleavage are catalyzed by a set of dedicated enzymes. However, in vitroformation of disulfide bonds is a slow process and requires harsh catalysts. Therefore, it is difficult to use disulfide crosslinked hydrogels for cell culture. In thiswork, w...
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Nanotechnology in the Olympic Winter Games and Beyond

Chaowei He, Muqing Cao, Jianbing Liu, Zhuoxin Ge, Ruihao Zhou, and Huaping Xu ACS Nano.; 2022, 16, 4981. Modern Olympics have increasingly benefited from the advancement of materials science. From February 4 to March 13, 2022, the whole world has witnessed spectacular Olympic Winter Games and Winter Paralympic Games held in Beijing, during which nanotechnologies are extensively applied and play indispensable roles in many aspects. Although these nanotechnologies appear in a very small length scale, they have provided tremendous support to all athletes with the pursuit of “faster, higher, s...
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Copper-Selenocysteine Quantum Dots for NIR-II Photothermally Enhanced Chemodynamic Therapy

Luo Zhang, Yiheng Dai, Shuojiong Pan, Yizheng Tan, Chenxing Sun, Muqing Cao and Huaping Xu ACS Appl. Bio Mater.; 2022, 5, 1794. Chemodynamic therapy has been appealing for effective cancer treatment. Particularly, Fenton-like reactions catalyzed by Cu2+-based nanoparticles showed promising prospects. Herein, we fabricated copper-selenocysteine quantum dots (Cu-Sec QDs) with the majority of Cu+ by a facile and robust thermal titration process. No high temperature or pressure is needed for this synthetic route of QDs. The selenocysteine functioned as the reducing agent as well as the stabili...
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Laser-Induced Remote Healing of Stretchable Diselenide-Containing Conductive Composites

Peng Zhao, Jiahao Xia, Jianbing Liu, Yizheng Tan, Shaobo Ji and Huaping Xu ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2021, 13, 50422. Remotely controlled on-demand functional healing is vital to components that are difficult to access and repair in distance such as satellites and unmanned cruising aircrafts. Compared with other stimuli, a blue laser is a better choice to input energy to the damaged area in distance because of its high energy density and low dissipation through the air. Herein, diselenide-containing polyurethane (PUSe) is first employed to fabricate visible light-responsive stretchable ...
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